de Morgan's _Delegation
en Perse, Mem._, t. vi, pi. 22.
Although the meaning of the majority of these ideographs has not yet
been identified, Pere Scheil, who has edited the texts, has succeeded
in making out the system of numeration. He has identified the signs for
unity, 10, 100, and 1,000, and for certain fractions, and the signs for
these figures are quite different from those employed by the Sumerians.
[Illustration: 231a.jpg Fractions]
The system, too, is different, for it is a decimal, and not a
sexagesimal, system of numeration.
That in its origin this form of writing had some connection with that
employed and, so far as we know, invented by the ancient Sumerians
is possible.* But it shows small trace of Sumerian influence, and the
disparity in the two systems of numeration is a clear indication that,
at any rate, it broke off and was isolated from the latter at a very
early period. Having once been adopted by the early Elamites, it
continued to be used by them for long periods with but small change or
modification. Employed far from the centre of Sumerian civilization, its
development was slow, and it seems to have remained in its ideographic
state, while the system employed by the Sumerians, and adopted by the
Semitic Babylonians, was developed along syllabic lines.
* It is, of course, also possible that the system of writing
had no connection in its origin with that of the Sumerians,
and was invented independently of the system employed in
Babylonia.
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